


Keeping It Simple

by Jaroo0707



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Gen, Triwizard Tournament
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-17 23:35:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29108667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaroo0707/pseuds/Jaroo0707
Summary: Sometimes, the best solution to a problem is the simplest one.Triwizard Tournament, first task.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 21





	Keeping It Simple

Harry Potter could be described many ways. He, personally, would choose the word “unlucky”.

But not right now. Right now? He'd say he was “completely and utterly buggered”. Why? That was rather simple; he was standing in front of a tent, in simple robes, with only his wand, and he was staring down a dragon.

Needless to say, his plan to summon a very much flammable broom seemed rather silly, for a few reasons. Mainly the fact that it was, and there's no way to overstress this point _made of wood_. Harry was prepared to admit it was a massive, rather obvious oversight on his part, but felt mollified by the fact that no one else seemed to realise it either.

‘So,’ Harry thought to himself from behind a rock, 'I've got a powerful summoning charm, an obvious in retrospect oversight, and a glorified lump of gold to grab.’

Then it hit him.

If this worked, he would laugh. Or cry. Or both. Maybe neither? Who knows? Who even cares! After all, if it works, and it's a _very_ big if, he would be very much, well, _not dead_.

As he began his retreat, keeping his head low and looking as submissive as possible (something his “training” from the Dursleys made a piece of cake), he went through the assumptions he made in forming his new plan, and what could go wrong.

He was betting on a dragon being intelligent enough to be able to identify its own eggs, and differentiate them from things like rocks, or metallic, egg shaped objects. Probably a reasonable assumption, all things considered.

He was betting on the fact that the mother was trying to protect the aforementioned eggs, rather than hunt Harry personally, or humans generally, and therefore should calm down, at least a smidge because of Harry’s current course of action, and calm even further as the spectators had fell into a confused quiet watching Harry back slowly away.

He had one final major gambit that was about to be in play, but he really didn't want to think about it.

Meanwhile, in the stands, people were confused. Was Harry planning something? He was Gryffindor’s golden boy, surely he wasn't cowering for no reason!

The general consensus that was forming seemed to be that he had some kind of big, flashy, concentration consuming spell lined up, and that he was building up to its casting.

So, they stayed quiet. Confusion turned to anticipation, as even Potter’s biggest haters were eager to see what his play would be (even if it was just so they could mock him later when it fell short).

Harry raised his wand slowly, cast a single spell, acquired the golden egg, and left the field, all in the space of 5 seconds. He had been in the arena for less than a minute and a half.

The other champions, needless to say, were quite embarrassed. Over the next few days, they'd contemplate how they overlooked something so simple, before checking to make sure Harry’s egg wasn't different to give him a better chance, on account of his age and the fact that, as he was more than rightly annoyed to still be repeating, not in the tournament of his own volition.

As it turns out, there was no preferential treatment. They had just over complicated matters.

The judges, it seemed, were each having trouble deciding exactly what to score Harry. On one hand, he had been the quickest champion by a long shot, had sustained no injuries, and had completed the task with very little fuss and no collateral.

On the other, there was no real spectacle; he had walked in, made a show of backing away submissively, cast a single spell, and got out egg in tow.

In the end, he received a 10 from Crouch Sr., who seemed pleased with the lack of spectacle, a 9 from both Dumbledore and Madame Maxime, an 8 from Bagman, who was rather put out by the general uneventfulness of Harry’s “battle”, and a 6. Karkaroff, it seemed, wasn't very subtle in his bias.

Harry himself, was pretty chuffed.

But that all had yet to happen.

Back with Harry, who had reached the exit, took a moment to consider his plan’s most glaring flaw, and muttered something to himself.

Had anyone been close enough to hear him, they'd have heard “Please, Merlin, for the love of all things magical, by either oversight or design, please let the eggs lack anti summoning charms.”

But there hadn't been, so his words drifted a couple of feet, by which point they had, in accordance with physics, faded to the point of inaudibility.

Harry raised his wand, focused on his target, and cast a spell.

“Accio golden egg”

And it flew right to him.

The dragon, upon somehow sensing the movement in her nest, turned away, just long enough to register the metallic-not-egg that had sat in her nest, start moving, and see her actual eggs remain remarkably undisturbed. “Good riddance”, she thought. The metallic-not-egg, to her keen nose, had reeked something awful of a combination of wizard and mermish magics, albeit dormant ones. She was unwilling to risk her young by trying to remove it herself, and potentially awaken some kind of hidden trap. Let the wizard it was flying towards take the risk, that was absolutely fine by her. Who knows, maybe the wizard would even fully leave, not that he had it. It was rather shiny, after all, and she had noticed that wizards, likely to do with what dragons had deemed their primitive nature, had a strange fondness of shiny things. But then again, perhaps killing the wizard would be enjoyable too- and he’s gone. Fine by her- oh bother. The damn dragon tamers were back. Probably wanted to give her another sleeping draught. All well, it seems she would get to play with some toys after all.

“Headmaster?”  
“Yes, Harry my boy?”  
“I've been curious for ages, so I have to ask; in the first task, with the golden egg, was it-”  
“Meant to have anti summoning charms?”  
“Yeah? Was it?”  
“That is a very good question. Perhaps so, perhaps not. I wasn't personally involved in the process of their production, but I do know that if they were meant to have such measures in place, whoever neglected to add them would have been in a spot of bother of rather spectacular proportions.”  
“I'll take that as a yes the?”  
Dumbledore didn't respond. He merely looked at Harry with a bemused smile, and his eyes twinkled.


End file.
